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Not everyone buys into it. Much like with Fedor following a bad strategy and jumping into Werdum's guard and getting submitted I also believe Silva beat himself.

I found nothing really impressive with Weidman's performance but I was definitely disturbed by Silva's. I find myself once again patiently waiting on the rematch so I can simply reply with a smile face.

Not that I'd expect you to give Weidman credit here... but watch what Weidman does differently then the rest of the guys who fought Silva instead of backing off after the first couple misses he continues to keep the pressure on and does back away in frustration (ie - what Bonnar is doing in your gif). Then he throws that flicking right that causes Anderson to move into the perfect position for the left which personally I think he set up intentionally.

Whether you give him credit or not don't matter cause he did something no one else has done and it's not like Anderson hasn't pulled this kind of stuff in matches before.

Not that I'd expect you to give Weidman credit here... but watch what Weidman does differently then the rest of the guys who fought Silva instead of backing off after the first couple misses he continues to keep the pressure on and does back away in frustration (ie - what Bonnar is doing in your gif). Then he throws that flicking right that causes Anderson to move into the perfect position for the left which personally I think he set up intentionally.

Whether you give him credit or not don't matter cause he did something no one else has done and it's not like Anderson hasn't pulled this kind of stuff in matches before.

I absolutely respect your opinion but for me this was more of what Silva did to lose than anything Weidman did to win. My guess is this will be rectified on Dec 28th.

Not everyone buys into the knock out being a result of Weidman's performance. That win was literally handed to Weidman on a platter like BF beating Overeem.

Interesting theory.

I have a question for you. Can you think of any fighters currently competing in the middleweight division of the UFC who could have slipped the first three punches of Weidman's combo the way Silva did? Because I can't.

That's what leads me to believe that Weidman threw that specific combo, at that specific range, at that specific time for a reason. Because I dont think it comes off against anyone else at middleweight, as nobody else possesses Silva's speed, reflexes, timing, or understanding of striking defense. Simply put, nobody at middleweight in the UFC gets floored by the left hook because none of them are good enough to evade the first three punches.

Weidman didn't get handed anything, and to suggest that he did is to do a disservice to both him and Silva.

I have a question for you. Can you think of any fighters currently competing in the middleweight division of the UFC who could have slipped the first three punches of Weidman's combo the way Silva did? Because I can't.

That's what leads me to believe that Weidman threw that specific combo, at that specific range, at that specific time for a reason. Because I dont think it comes off against anyone else at middleweight, as nobody else possesses Silva's speed, reflexes, timing, or understanding of striking defense. Simply put, nobody at middleweight in the UFC gets floored by the left hook because none of them are good enough to evade the first three punches.

Weidman didn't get handed anything, and to suggest that he did is to do a disservice to both him and Silva.

If that's a disservice then it was initiated by Silva when he decided to let Weidman punch him in the face repeatedly. Again Silva didn't do that to Vitor, Okami, Sonnen or Henderson.

Sorry but the soup some of yall are sipping on disagrees with my stomach.

He doesn't use that style against serious threats especially wrestlers. He didn't let Vitor, Okami, Sonnen or Dan Henderson punch him in the face and he certainly didn't lower his guard the way he did. There are certain fighters you just don't do that to.

Every fighter that has tried to implement that style has paid for it at least once. Its awesome when it works its expensive when it doesn't.

Agree, but I think it is less about what style of fighting his opponent has, than it is about whether he thinks they are mentally weak or likely to break from game plan. It seems to be an case-by-case evaluation on his part. Hendo, Vitor--they mature fighters that are far less likely to fall into a trap even if they get very frustrated. Silva is a master of the mental game and imo would have had several less dominant performances if he hadn't broken many of his opponents with some frustrating showmanship.

Is it disrespectful? Yes. It is also effective against tentative fighters, but it is risky and is two-sided. If the opponent is weak-willed or just tentative, AND Anderson is feeling superior, it has a strong chance of rattling the opponent into slipping up.

I think Silva is making a mistake in taking the immediate rematch as has too much to lose. He no longer will feel 100% superior, and Weidman clearly isn't going to be tentative. This makes it a very evenly matched fight whereby if Anderson loses he will have lost his own rock solid confidence as well losing the awe-factor in the eyes of his opponents. He is still one of the most talented strikers out there, it will just be that his "Jedi" powers will no longer be much of a factor, coupled with age/speed etc...

Agree, but I think it is less about what style of fighting his opponent has, than it is about whether he thinks they are mentally weak or likely to break from game plan. It seems to be an case-by-case evaluation on his part. Hendo, Vitor--they mature fighters that are far less likely to fall into a trap even if they get very frustrated. Silva is a master of the mental game and imo would have had several less dominant performances if he hadn't broken many of his opponents with some frustrating showmanship.

Is it disrespectful? Yes. It is also effective against tentative fighters, but it is risky and is two-sided. If the opponent is weak-willed or just tentative, AND Anderson is feeling superior, it has a strong chance of rattling the opponent into slipping up.

I think Silva is making a mistake in taking the immediate rematch as has too much to lose. He no longer will feel 100% superior, and Weidman clearly isn't going to be tentative. This makes it a very evenly matched fight whereby if Anderson loses he will have lost his own rock solid confidence as well losing the awe-factor in the eyes of his opponents. He is still one of the most talented strikers out there, it will just be that his "Jedi" powers will no longer be much of a factor, coupled with age/speed etc...

As rivet pointed out neither Bonnar nor Griffin were known to have KO power. Some fighters you can get away with letting them punch you in the face and Weidman isn't one of them.

Yeah, granted - but Silva didn't necessarily know that. How many knockouts does Weidman have? I haven't seen the Uriah Hall fight but I understand Weidman knocked him out with a left hook. He cracked Munoz with that elbow but I'd speculate that Silva's primary concern was being taken down and pounded on - either stopped or to a losing decision.

What exactly had Weidman done up until that point to make ANY of us think that he was capable of knocking Silva out standing up? The Munoz elbow? Fuck me dead, I can remember a bunch of people on this forum who insisted that the only fucking reason that Weidman beat Munoz at all was cause Munoz was fat and unfit.

Point is, Silva was well within his rights to consider Weidman an acceptable threat on the feet based on the evidence he had available. Remember, Weidman has still only landed one - one - shot on Silva that hurt him. He gobbled all of the rest up. Silva probably thought that Weidman wasn't going to hurt him with standing strikes and he was 100% correct up until he wasn't.

But but but...he's never done a fake stanky leg befo- who gives a fuck? Too many people are fixating on exactly what type of 'clowning' he was doing like it actually matters.

So he let Weidman punch him but not Vitor. He didn't do that with Maia either - but he did air guitar. He didn't air guitar with Sonnen or Okami but he did drop his hands repeatedly. He dropped his hands with Leites AND jabbed him in the knee. He didn't jab Sonnen in the knee but he did attempt low risk flying knees and on and on and on....

All these differing types of clowning are simply a mechanism for Silva to get inside his opponents head and get them to overcommit to strikes so he can capitalise on the opening. And the reason he didn't clown Vitor was because Vitor was the heaviest handed striker he fought bar Henderson. He took him out quickly with a strike Vitor didn't expect because Vitor was a credible threat standing. He treated them differently because he assessed them differently. He and his coaching team got it spectacularly right against Belfort and spectacularly wrong about Weidman.

I don't know about anyone else but this has made me look differently at Silva as a fighter. If anything I have more respect for him. This one time he got it wrong in the UFC just makes the other 17 time he got it right are all the more impressive to me.